Lauren spun round in my arms then took herself off into some elaborate pirouette, ending in a move that could’ve been out of some music video. A mash-up. One of her favourite ways to entertain herself.
I watched her, folding my arms and grinning.
Her grin back was my reward. “Do you have to go to work? Can you not come and see Fosse with me instead?” She had tickets to see Fosse yet again in the West End.
“Can’t, Lolly. Got to put a shift in. Give me more than twenty-four hours’ notice next time and I’ll try to rearrange my shifts.” And try was the operative word. I was aware that it wouldn’t be long before my daughter would stop asking me to be her date, preferring to go with her friends, or even a boyfriend.
She regarded me with the brown eyes she’d inherited from her mother. “Your boss is a big old sack ofshine.”
I laughed. There were lots of ways to describe Simone, that wasn’t one of them. Formidable, yes. Driven, for sure. Hottest pair of tits I’d seen in a long time, hell yeah. “But she pays our bills and for all your dance classes. When did your mum say she was coming over?”
Lolly shrugged. Most teenaged girls would be rowing with their mothers at this age; Lolly and her mum had a completely different relationship. Rebecca had been the geeky girl at university, the one who would stay in the lab until two in the morning because she was desperate to see the results of an experiment. Her conversations with her daughter were sweet and supportive, but when Lolly started talking about dance, Rebecca would delve into the physics of it, thinking that would help. It was possible that my ex was a little different, and we loved her for it, but it made for some interesting mother-daughter chats.
“I think it’s in a couple of months. She mentioned something about a research lab and results and a trip to Denmark and then Lily messaged me.”
Which meant that Lauren hadn’t heard anything else Rebecca had said and Rebecca wouldn’t have noticed because she was probably coming up with some new theory that was going to rock the science world.
“I’ll find out. Who are you taking to Fosse then? Lily?”
Lauren shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Andrew in my Spanish class said he’d never seen it and asked if he could have the ticket.”
Her tone was nonchalant which was a key tell that this was not a small deal. I’d heard her mention Andrew before, when she was on the phone to Lily, along with that giggle teenage girls seemed to get that lodged fear into their parents.
“Do you need a lift? I can pick Andrew up and drop you off?” I was only working from six, covering a late shift. Dieter, the other chef, had some family thing so I’d offered to take over. He was doing the same for me in a couple of weeks when Lolly had a dance show.
“Can you pick me up, but can I get there myself?”
Definitely something more going on with Andrew than him just being in her Spanish class.
Lolly knew London well and was capable of getting herself about on public transport. As much as I wanted to wrap her up in cotton wool, it hadn’t always been feasible because I was a working single dad with bills to pay and splitting myself in two wasn’t an option. She’d been brought up to be independent and keep herself safe. Getting to the West End to watch a show wasn’t a new thing.
“Sure. Usual guidelines.”
She screwed up her face but didn’t argue. “What time will you finish?”
“Eleven or earlier. I’ll text you. If Fosse finishes early, you and Andrew can walk to the restaurant.”
“I didn’t say I was going with Andrew!”
“You didn’t need to.”
* * *
Simone was sittingin the bar area, sipping on what looked like an espresso martini when I got there. She looked fairly dressed up and I wondered whether she’d been out on a date. Except Simone hadn’t been on a single date since I’d known her and that wasn’t for the lack of offers. She just wasn’t interested. Work was her lover and nothing had distracted her from the greedy arms of it.
“We’ve run out of lamb.”
Her greeting had its usual warmth and care.
“You want me to put on a special? There’s the pork…”
Simone looked at me as if I had just landed from Mars and hadn’t understood the concept of language yet.
“I’ve prepped it already.” She didn’t look at me.
“You think of everything.” I didn’t bother to remove the sarcasm, partly because she wouldn’t notice it anyway. Simone sat herself on a fucking podium twenty feet above the rest of us, although she was the most talented chef I’d ever worked with and a mean business woman.
She sipped her martini and eyeballed me. Maybe she had noticed.
